Denise Naguib the VP, Sustainability and Supplier Diversity, Marriott International, Inc. and host David Kepron talk about the planet, sustainable design practices and corporate responsibility in making the world a place that humans can thrive in. Naguib was on an education track to studying medicine, then there was the one course that changed everything resulting in a Bachelors of Science in Geography with an emphasis on biological and human impacts on the environment.
From a summer job watering plants, to working with Jean-Michel Cousteau, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. and now in her role at Marriott, she works everyday to ensure that we will have a planet on which we humans can thrive in the future.
Denise was born in Cairo, Egypt where she lived for half of her childhood before moving to Michigan, Minnesota, and finally Oregon. She attended the University of Oregon, earning a Bachelors of Science in Geography with an emphasis on biological and human impacts on the environment. After graduating, Denise became involved with Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, implementing environmental education programs at various locations.
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In 2005, Denise moved to the Cayman Islands to implement Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment program at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman. Naguib moved to Washington, DC and led the environmental strategy for the brand, as well as supporting the growth of the Cousteau program within The Ritz-Carlton. In January 2010, Denise joined the Global Operations group at Marriott International and continued her work on sustainability strategy for all brands, as well as expansion of the Cousteau program.
In 2012, Denise was named Vice President of Sustainability and Supplier Diversity, integrating both of these important subjects in the company’s global operations. In 2017, Naguib launched the company’s new Sustainability and Social Impact platform, Serve 360, and accompanying goals. Denise is working on a variety of projects including responsible sourcing, food waste, carbon reporting and supporting efforts to increase spend with diverse businesses globally.
Denise currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board for WEConnect International, the global organization supporting women businesses around the world. She is also the Chair of the National LGBT Chamber’s Procurement Council, on the Board of The Conference Board’s Sustainability Center and serves on the boards of The Ocean Foundation and Arbor Day Foundation.
SHOW INTRO:
A few years ago, my family gave me a book that was full of amazing illustrations of planet earth… without humans.
The images it showed were both fantastic and tragic.
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But as you looked through the images one thing became perfectly clear, that earth without humans was actually OK.
Now I’m not suggesting that we work hard to leave earth. On the contrary, I’m actually suggesting that we need to work harder at saving earth from ourselves.
When you think about it, in the grand scheme of things, the big universal timeline, humans have been around for a micro moment, not even a blink of an eye.
And to be sure, in the very short time that we’ve been around, we have done some pretty remarkable things. There isn’t a day go by that I don’t marvel at human ingenuity as well as the strange paradox that we equally seem to be working as hard at making this planet uninhabitable for ourselves well at the same time we’re trying to save each other from devastating diseases to keep us alive for as long as we can.
Which I suppose points to the idea that despite our irresponsible treatment of mother earth we really love being here.
As an architect I am particularly tuned in to what our built environment costs, not in terms of materials or operating expenses, but in terms of what it does to the environment around us what natural resources we strip from the earth, the cost of shipping them to construction sites and the leftovers of the construction process that end up in landfill.
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As a LEED certified architect I’m even more tuned in to the lifespan of buildings and the impact that they have on the environment.
Alan weismann’s book “The World Without US” brought to light some pretty interesting ideas regarding how the world would be if we simply retreated further into the background and let natural ecosystems take over.
We’ve seen some of these changes over the past two years in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s kept people inside, animals have had a chance to roam, our urban environments have become less raucous, the ozone layer has had a chance to mend and even the canals in Venice are running clear.
So, it does tend to make you want to question what would happen to our planet if for example we weren’t here.
Now, having said that, I think most of us want to be here. We find this little blue dot spinning uncontrollably in the vast universe an astounding place to be with a wealth of natural resources flora and fauna, that if you look, just for a moment, you can be nothing but amazed at the complexity, beauty, detail and design of all things.
It’s not surprising as well that during this pause imposed on us over the past couple of years, that people have begun to reconnect to the value of nature.
Biophilic design is rolling off the lips of more people these days than ever before and sustainable practices are being embraced and young GenZers, like Greta Thunberg, are being lauded for sailing across the ocean and bringing a global consciousness to the climate change issue.
I can tell you, my sons are quite concerned about the planet they’ve inherited. And what we need to do to make it right in the next few years so that the trajectory of climate change won’t lead to a climate calamity.
I don’t know, maybe it’s quite likely that our influence on climate will likely be the demise of humans long before some asteroid hits us like in the movie Don’t look up.”
I was also quite struck by the Salesforce commercial playing during the Winter Olympics with Matthew McConaughey who was suggesting that space is ‘a final frontier’ might be a misappropriation of our attention.
We might be better off connecting better and creating viable alternatives to the way that we’ve treated mother earth, a planet that we’ve been gifted and need to be better stewards of.
I liked the idea of SalesForce’s “Team Earth” commercial.
Bravo for bringing that into the social consciousness.
When I was at Marriott our chief engineer Terry Smith was on a mission to remove plastic bottles from hotels and implement water filtration systems that would remove millions of plastic bottles from landfill every year.
You know, there’s a plastic island the size of Texas floating in the Pacific Ocean and everything we can do every day to remove things like that from our planet the better off we all will be, humans and ocean life alike.
When I was at Marriott there was a woman who seemed to make it her life purpose to connect us to the consequences of our behavior on geography and the natural ecosystems.
Denise Naguib is an extraordinary person with a passion for education and growing our awareness of how to interact with a world around us that produces better human outcomes.
Denise was born in Cairo, Egypt where she lived for half of her childhood before moving to Michigan, Minnesota, and finally Oregon.
She was originally on an education track that would put her into medicine. But one day, when needing to take an elective for one of the courses to complete her Bachelors degree, she discovered the world of geography… and that changed everything.
She earned a Bachelors of Science in Geography degree from the University of Oregon with an emphasis on biological and human impacts on the environment.
After graduating, Denise was hired to be a snorkeling instructor at a summer camp on Catalina island off the coast of California. She had grown up snorkeling and this was a natural fit for her.
And, as fate would have it, one day she got a call that led to becoming involved with Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, implementing environmental education programs.
In 2005, Denise moved to the Cayman Islands (not a bad gig) to implement Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment program at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman.
With the success of that program, Denise then moved to Washington, DC and led the environmental strategy for the brand, as well as supporting the growth of the Cousteau program within The Ritz-Carlton.
In January 2010, Denise joined the Global Operations group at Marriott International and continued her work on sustainability strategy for all brands, as well as expansion of the Cousteau program.
In 2012, Denise was named Vice President of Sustainability and Supplier Diversity, integrating both of these important subjects in the company’s global operations. In 2017, Naguib launched the company’s new Sustainability and Social Impact platform, Serve 360, and accompanying goals.
Denise currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board for WEConnect International, the global organization supporting women businesses around the world. She is also the Chair of the National LGBT Chamber’s Procurement Council, on the Board of The Conference Board’s Sustainability Center and serves on the boards of The Ocean Foundation and Arbor Day Foundation.
When I was at Marriott, I liked visiting Denise in her office as often as I could, because it was filled with plants and just smelled better.
Her little enclave of the building felt a little bit like a place that grown over after humans had left. Except that at Marriott Denise Naguib is very much there connecting a network of over 8000 hotels and the companies that supply them to the world of sustainable building practice.
She leads a team who spends there days connecting to hearts and minds to what we can learn from, and the value of, natural ecosystems helping to make sure that this little blue dot we live on… will not just be there for future generations but be one we can continue to thrive on.
David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe.
David is a former VP – Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels.
In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies.
As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace.
David currently brings his creativity and insight on brand experiences to an international audience as a member of VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, as a Board Member of the Interactive Customer Experience Association (ICXA) and Sign Research Foundation’s (SRF) Program Committee.
He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.
In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com.
In September of 2020, he launched the “NXTLVL Experience Design” podcast which brings listeners dialogues about “DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.” His guests include thought leaders who are driven by a passion to create the ‘New Possible’ and promote new paradigms of experiences into the mainstream.
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